NEWARK -- An organization searching for a decade for a place to build what it hopes will be the state’s largest children’s museum has found a location, giving this city an opportunity to add a potential gem to its downtown.

Museum officials and community leaders are expected to announce today a plan to transform the former Portuguese Airlines building across from Newark Penn Station into the Children’s Museum of New Jersey.

An artist rendering of the Children's Museum of New Jersey, which will be built in Newark, across from Penn Station. It will be the largest museum of its kind in the state.
The three-story learning center would become a kid-sized interactive microcosm of urban life, complete with a train station, restaurant, grocery store and video studio, museum officials said.

“This is the largest market that is unserved by a nonprofit children’s museum in the country,” said Peter Clarke, the museum’s project manager. “By putting this facility in Newark, not only do you have the greatest rail hub in the state but you’re minutes from Route 78, 280, the 1 and 9.”

The museum, which has been in the planning stages for roughly 10 years, would provide a venue for New Jersey children to “play grown-up” while gaining exposure to cultures and experiences that may otherwise be foreign, according to museum trustees.

The main space on the first floor will feature a grocery store, connected to a garden by conveyor belt. A restaurant will change menus to highlight different ethnic foods and a model house will change to reflect different cultures. The second floor will expand on more specific themes.

The museum is geared toward children from infant to age 12, and will include classrooms, performance areas, a cool-down room for overstimulated children and an area for children from newborn through age 5.

Programs and spaces will also be specifically tailored to children with special needs. Museum President Anne Wargo said her own experience as the parent of an autistic child led her to make the museum welcoming to parents and children with similar needs.
“There was really no place I could go with my infant and play,” Wargo said. “You’re desperate for ideas.”

The building, at 399 Market St., housed the former corporate offices of TAP, Portuguese Airlines. Rather than rent it out again, the building’s owner, Edison Properties, donated it to the museum in 2009 for five years, rent and tax free.

The museum needs $2 million to open its doors next year, and $2 million more to operate the facility for the first year, said Siobhan McDermott, the museum’s management consultant.

Nationally, there are about 300 children’s museums in the United States, including about 65 that are just starting up, according to the Association of Children’s Museums. They represent the fastest growing segment of the museum field, with 44 percent of them opened in the 1990s, according to the association.

New Jersey has at least six other museums for children, including the Community Children’s Museum in Dover and the Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill.
The newly planned museum, with anticipated traffic nearing 40,000 visitors a year, is expected to be a major element in the revitalization of downtown Newark, community leaders said.

“It’s going to definitely benefit not only the children of Newark, but a project like this could be a tremendous source of revenue for the city,” said East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador.

Newark’s deputy mayor for economic and housing development, Stefan Pryor, said the museum will “build upon Newark’s position as a destination for visitors from throughout the metro region.”